Brandon Acker, Lute: About the Program

The European Renaissance lute developed from the Arabic oud, which arrived with the Moorish occupation of Spain in the early 8th century. Both are pear-shaped instruments with rounded backs and a sharp angle where the pegbox connects to the neck. By the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, lute playing had developed distinctive national differences. English composers, like John Dowland (1563-1626), used the lute to accompany solo songs. French lutenists, including Denis Gaultier (c. 1600-1672), developed a style of broken chord arpeggiation (the style brisé), which would be transferred to harpsichord playing as in the works of François Couperin (1688-1733). So it is not surprising that Italians forged their own path in lute playing, including works to demonstrate the instrument’s virtuoso capabilities (seen in the selection of toccatas), as a central instrument in the continuo group (especially with the theorbo, a bass version of the lute), and as a soloist in concertos.

The composer and lutenist Andrea Falconieri (1585/86-1656) lived a peripatetic life which took him from Italy to France and Spain before he achieved the height of his professional career as the maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy in Naples in 1648. The Battaglia de Barabaso yerno de Satanas (The Battle of Barabaso son of Satan) is from his 1650 Primo libro di canzone, sinfonie, fantasie, capricci, brandi, correnti, gagliarde, alemane, volte. Musical depictions of battles (real, mythical, or allegorical) were popular not only in the Baroque, but have later echoes in works like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Falconieri’s mythical battaglia may have been part of an entertainment with an underworld theme, featuring dancing in which the royal family participated; Barabaso may be a nickname of a member of the court. The work alternates fast sections featuring fanfares and fast homophonic attacks with slower contrapuntal sections in triple meter.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) composed his Trio Sonata op. 1, no. 1 in G minor (1705) just as he was beginning to make a name for himself as a violinist in Venice. Baroque trio sonatas are often divided into two groups: da chiesa (for the church) in which the individual movements replace chants for parts of the Proper of the Mass (such as the communion or offertory), and the da camera in which the music is intended as a chamber work, often clearly naming the dance forms used as a model, as in this case. The Trio Sonata op. 1, no. 1 is in five movements: Prelude, Allemande, Adagio, Capriccio, and Gavotte.

“Toccata” indicates a piece written to show off the virtuoso dexterity of the soloist in a composition meant to sound improvisational, quickly moving from one theme or texture to another. Alessandro Piccinini (1566-1638) was from a family of lutenists in Bologna; he published two large collections of lute music including dances, toccatas, and other works. Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580-1651) was an Italian lutenist of German descent who was active in Rome, where he worked for Cardinal Barberini for 30 years. He is particularly noted for developing the bass lute as a solo instrument (rather than a member of the continuo group), through various publications of virtuoso music. A canario is a dance from the Canary Islands which Kapsberger included in his, Libro quarto d’intavolatura di Chitarrone (1640).

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1712) is credited as being one of the first composers to devote himself exclusively to instrumental music. He accomplished this through only a handful of publications, each including several works. His Violin Sonata in Sonata in G minor op. 5, no. 5 appeared in his penultimate publication in 1700. Like the previous Vivaldi sonata, Corelli’s work is in five movements with clear references to dances: Adagio, Vivace, Adagio cantabile (in the style of a sarabande), Vivace, and Gigue.

The outer movements of the Vivaldi Concerto for Lute in D Major mix ritornello forms—usually a through composed form alternating the full ensemble with the soloist—with binary forms that allow the soloist to improvise ornamentation on the repeats. The middle movement is also in binary form (also in D major) and features the soloist’s line throughout with the ensemble providing a homophonic support over a propulsive bass line of walking eighth notes. 

Giovanni Zamboni (1664-1721) was not only an accomplished composer and instrumentalist, but also worked as a jeweler for the Pisa Cathedral. He published a collection titled Sonate d’intavolatura di leuto in Luca in 1718. These works are collections of dances, as seen in the movement titles, to which has been added an anonymous passacaglia for today’s performance.

Vivaldi composed nine sonatas for cello and basso continuo, several of which have been transcribed for lute or guitar. The Cello Sonata no. 3 in A minor is in four movements, all in binary forms, like dances, although not named as such. The opening Largo serves as a prelude. The following Allegro begins with a pick up and moves briskly with sixteenth-note gestures, like a courante. The third movement Largo features triplet first beats which accent the longer second beat, as in a sarabande. The closing Allegro features syncopated themes and running sixteenth-note passages.

Francesco Corbetta (1615-1681) played a major role in developing the popularity of the guitar (or chitarra spagnola) as an instrument for gentlemen and ladies in the middle Baroque, for both the general public and at royal courts. He held positions at courts in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England, where he tutored members of the royal families on the instrument. In effect, he was part of a change of taste that saw the rise in popularity of the guitar and the decline of the lute; he also published six collections of guitar works. His suites present brief movements showing the variety of strumming and finger work possible on the instrument.

Marco Uccellini (1603 or 1610-1680) was a composer and instrumentalist who held distinguished posts for the Este court and at the Modena Cathedral. Sadly, none of his operas or ballets for the court have survived; his reputation rests on a few sacred vocal works and seven collections of instrumental music. The bergamesca is a tune of mostly stepwise motion over a simple, repeating harmonic scheme (I-IV-V-I), probably derived from the region of Bergamo in northern Italy (as the name suggests). The tune was used by several composers throughout Europe and is found in Shakespeare as a rustic dance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The simplicity of both the melody and harmony allow for elaborate variation, as Uccellini did in setting the tune in his Sonate, arie et correnti, op. 3 (1642).